Longtime Fresno restaurant is starting a GoFundMe campaign to survive COVID-19 pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has been rough on restaurants all over Fresno.
One longtime local restaurant, BJ’s Kountry Kitchen, has had such a tough go of it, the owner has started a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to pay her bills and keep the doors open.
This is the original BJ’s Kountry Kitchen, now located at 4109 E. Ashlan Ave., at Cedar Avenue in the Save Mart shopping center. The two others of the same name in town have different owners.
The Ashlan and Cedar avenues restaurant, open for breakfast and lunch, will celebrate its 40th anniversary next May. Owner Lynda Wiens inherited it from her mother, who died four years ago. But Wiens is worried about the restaurant, which she hopes to pass on to her own daughter.
Business has dropped by 80% since the coronavirus pandemic started. She estimates she’s behind on $20,000 to $30,000 in bills, most of it rent and PG&E.
“I keep thinking, ‘Am I gonna make it? Am I gonna make it?’ she said. “I gotta make it for mom. My daughter’s going to take it over.”
Restaurant faces challenges
On top of the pandemic, the restaurant has been hit with a string of bad luck lately.
A vandal smashed the front door, which will cost about $650 to fix.
Wiens had a collection jar at the front door so people could donate to help with expenses. But about two weeks ago, a man who robbed the dd’s DISCOUNTS store next door stole the jar with about $1,000 in it before jumping into a getaway car driven by a woman.
“My waiter and I tried to catch them but the girl almost ran us over with a car,” she said. “It’s been crazy.”
The restaurant received a 10-day eviction notice at one point, but that’s on hold as the City of Fresno placed a moratorium on evictions for small businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wiens applied for a PPP loan but didn’t get it. She later learned she had sent in her information in the wrong electronic format.
The phone company turned off the restaurant’s phone for unpaid bills on Mother’s Day, typically a busy day for restaurants.
“I finally broke down and cried,” she said. “I was like, I can’t do it.”
The phone has since been turned back on.
Restaurants reopening
Like many restaurants, BJ’s Kountry Kitchen pivoted to takeout orders and patio dining, even though it only had a makeshift patio. It didn’t work as well as Wiens had hoped, with some customers mistakenly believing they were closed. The recent smoke and heat didn’t help matters.
Now that restaurants are allowed to seat up to 25% of their capacity (or 100 people, whichever is fewer), she’s hoping business will increase. They can seat four or five tables out of 18.
In a twist, she’s also looking to hire at least two servers. When she first reopened the dining room over the summer, several of her servers didn’t come back. She said she thought it was because they could make more on unemployment, though the extra $600 federal benefit has since run out.
She and the dishwasher waited tables.
Her latest hire? Waitress Jerry Lopez, who worked for 42 years at Grandmarie’s Chicken Pie Shop, the iconic restaurant in the Tower District that closed last spring.
How is she feeling about this whole situation?
“Very thankful I don’t own a restaurant,” she joked.
But then turned serious: “We went through the same thing when I worked for (the Chicken Pie Shop). We started bringing everything we could to bring the people in,” she said, before turning her thoughts to BJ’s and Wiens. “She’s been here so many years. This coronavirus just really did a number on her. It has everybody.”
Some restaurants had a financial cushion to help get them through, but no so much this one, she said.
That’s why Wiens started the online fundraising campaign. She started it on Aug. 7, with a goal of $25,000. She’d only raised $1,550 as of Monday.
Deciding to do it wasn’t easy, she said.
“I felt bad. I really felt like my pride went down because I had to do that,” she said. “That’s my only way I’m going to be able to survive, if I can get that help.”
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
